{{Short description|18th/19th-century Irish actress}} thumb|Portrait of Julia Glover as Roxalana {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2015}} {{Use British English|date=September 2015}} '''Julia Betterton Glover''' (8 January 1779<ref name=players/> – 16 July 1850) was an Irish-born stage actress well known for her comic roles in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.<ref name=players>[https://archive.org/details/hourswithplayer04cookgoog Dutton Cook (1883) ''Hours with the Players'' pp. 258-271, Chatto and Windus, London]</ref>
==Biography== Glover was born Julia Butterton in 1779 <ref>Graeme Smith, "The Theatre Royal: Entertaining a Nation" 2008</ref> <ref name="HD">{{cite book | last = Taylor & Francis Group |author2=Cathy Hartley |author3=Susan Leckey | title = A Historical Dictionary of British Women | publisher = Routledge | year = 2003 | pages = 186 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=pDtEe4FKolUC | isbn =1-85743-228-2 }}</ref> or 1781<ref name="BM">{{cite book | last = Dickens | first = Charles | author-link = Charles Dickens |author2=William Harrison Ainsworth |author2-link=William Harrison Ainsworth |author3=Albert Smith |author3-link=Albert Richard Smith | title = Bentley's Miscellany | publisher = Richard Bentley | year = 1857 | pages = [https://archive.org/details/bentleysmiscell40smitgoog/page/n222 210]–220 | url = https://archive.org/details/bentleysmiscell40smitgoog }}</ref> in Newry, Ireland.<ref name="HD" />
In London in 1800 she married Samuel Glover the son of an industrial family from Birmingham. "Betterton" was not her real name, despite her father`s promotion of the fiction. She was born Julianna Butterton in Newry, Ireland, the daughter of the town`s theatre manager William Butterton. His venture failed and he decided there would be financial benefit to him if her name were changed to "Betterton", claiming links to a famous actor and long dead Thomas Betterton. With this deception he and his family travelled round the theatres and the young Julia was acclaimed as an infant acting prodigy in York, the West Country, Bath and elsewhere. At age 9 she made her debut in Scotland at the Dumfries Theatre Royal in 1790, and at age 16 she made her debut on the London stage in 1797.
As a child, she toured with her father and began taking small parts in plays.<ref name="HD" /> In 1787, she joined the York Circuit under manager Tate Wilkinson<ref name="BM" /> and appeared as the Page in Thomas Otway's ''The Orphan'', as well as the Duke of York with George Frederick Cooke in ''Richard III''.<ref name="BM" /><ref name="MW">{{cite book | title = The Musical World | publisher = J. Alfredo Novello | year = 1851 | pages = 446 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=lZMPAAAAYAAJ }}</ref> When Cooke was cast as Glumdalca, the Queen of the Giants, in Fieldings burlesque play ''Tom Thumb'', Cooke chose Julia to play the title role.<ref name=players/> In 1795 she went to Bath and played the parts of Juliet, Imogen, Desdemona, Lady Macbeth and Lydia Languish.<ref name="HD" /><ref name="BM" /> She became well known, particularly praised for her comic role as Languish, and news of her success reached London.<ref name="HD" /> A number of job offers were made, but they were declined by her father.<ref name="BM" /> He eventually accepted a lucrative offer (taking her salary for himself), for which she made her London début in 1797 as ''Percy'' by Hannah More.<ref name="HD" /><ref name="BM" />
Early in her career, Glover found herself competing for tragic parts with Maria Ann Campion, an actress from Dublin.<ref name="MW" /> Glover subsequently favoured comic roles.<ref name="MW" /> In 1800, her father sold her in marriage to Samuel Glover for £1, 000, although the money was never paid.<ref name="HD" /> Unhappily married, she had eight children, four of whom survived childhood.<ref name="BM" /> In 1820, she played Hamlet at the Lyceum Theatre to critical acclaim.<ref>{{cite book | last = Howard | first = Tony | title = Women as Hamlet: Performance and Interpretation in Theatre, Film and Fiction | publisher = Cambridge University Press | year = 2007 | pages = 42 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=MKp9Vm-XygUC | isbn = 978-0-521-86466-4}}</ref> In 1822, she appeared as Nurse in ''Romeo and Juliet'' at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane; her daughter Phyllis played Juliet.<ref name="BM" /> On 8 February 1837, her father, with whom she had had an unhappy relationship, died.<ref name="HD" /><ref name="BM" />
One of her sons was Edmund Glover and another was William Howard Glover. In 1850, Glover announced her retirement from the stage. After two weeks confined to her bed, she appeared at Drury Lane for her farewell benefit performance on 12 July 1850 as Mrs. Malaprop in ''The Rivals''.<ref name="BM" /> She was noticeably ill and weak during her performance and was unable to stand to receive her applause at the end of the play.<ref name="MW" /> Instead, the curtain rose to reveal Glover seated, surrounded by the rest of the cast.<ref name="MW" /> She died days later on 16 July 1850.
==Selected roles== * Emily Fitzallan in ''False Impressions'' by Richard Cumberland (1797) * Lady Jane in ''He's Much to Blame'' by Thomas Holcroft (1798) * Eleanor de Ferrars in ''The Eccentric Lover'' by Richard Cumberland (1798) * Maria in ''Five Thousand a Year'' by Thomas Dibdin (1799) * Caroline in ''The Votary of Wealth'' by Joseph George Holman (1799) * Lady Susan Courtley in ''To Marry or Not to Marry'' by Elizabeth Inchbald (1805) * Lady Le Brun in ''A Hint to Husbands'' by Richard Cumberland (1806) * Mrs Glenroy in ''Town and Country'' by Thomas Morton (1807) * The Unknown Lady in ''Ourselves'' by Marianne Chambers (1811) * Alhadra in ''Remorse'' by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1813) * Laetitia Freemantle in ''First Impressions'' by Horatio Smith (1813) * Tullia in ''Brutus'' by John Howard Payne (1818) * Mrs Weilberg in ''The Three Strangers'' by Harriet Lee (1825) *Jeanette in ''The French Libertine'' by John Howard Payne (1826) * Dame Ryland in ''A School for Grown Children'' by Thomas Morton (1827) * Lady Hampton in ''The School for Coquettes'' by Catherine Gore (1831) * Madame Burkenstaff in ''The Minister and the Mercer'' by Alfred Bunn (1834) *Widow Green in ''The Love Chase'' by James Sheridan Knowles (1837) * Esther in ''The Maid of Mariendorpt'' by James Sheridan Knowles (1838) * Mrs. Grigson in ''Quid Pro Quo'' by Catherine Gore (1844) * Miss Brown in ''Look Before You Leap'' by George William Lovell (1846) *Mrs. Malaprop in ''The Rivals'' by Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1850)
==References== {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Glover, Julia}} Category:1779 births Category:1850 deaths Category:18th-century Irish actresses Category:19th-century Irish actresses
Category:Entertainers from Newry Category:Actors from County Armagh